Great Expectations: the Experienced Credibility of Cabinet Ministers and Parliamentary Party Leaders
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Great expectations: the experienced credibility of cabinet ministers and parliamentary party leaders Sabine van Zuydam [email protected] Concept, please do not cite Paper prepared for the NIG PUPOL international conference 2016, session 4: Session 4: The Political Life and Death of Leaders 1 In the relationship between politics and citizens, political leaders are essential. While parties and issues have not become superfluous, leaders are required to win support of citizens for their views and plans, both in elections and while in office. To be successful in this respect, credibility is a crucial asset. Research has shown that credible leaders are thought to be competent, trustworthy, and caring. What requires more attention is the meaning of competent, caring, and trustworthy leaders in the eyes of citizens. In this paper the question is needed to be credible according to citizens in different leadership positions, e.g. cabinet ministers and parliamentary party leaders. To answer this question, it was studied what is expected of leaders in terms of competence, trustworthiness, and caring by conducting an extensive qualitative analysis of Tweets and newspaper articles between August 2013 and June 2014. In this analysis, four Dutch leadership cases with a contrasting credibility rating were compared: two cabinet ministers (Frans Timmermans and Mark Rutte) and two parliamentary party leaders (Emile Roemer and Diederik Samsom). This analysis demonstrates that competence relates to knowledgeability, decisiveness and bravery, performance, and political strategy. Trustworthiness includes keeping promises, consistency in views and actions, honesty and sincerity, and dependability. Caring means having an eye for citizens’ needs and concern, morality, constructive attitude, and no self-enrichment. While these sets of expectations refer to both cabinet ministers and parliamentary party leaders, they manifest themselves differently in a real-life context, as well as that their relative importance differs. Credible political leadership in context Political leaders have an important role in our democracies. Whether we like it or not, and how great organizational and situational pressures might be, ‘at the end of the day it is down to individuals and groups’ (’t Hart & Uhr, 2008: 3) to provide direction and to get things done. Especially in the relationship between politics and citizens, political leaders are essential. Developments like partisan dealignment (Dunleavy, 2005; Mughan, 2009) and the mediated nature of political communication (Hajer, 2009; Strömbäck, 2008) have not rendered parties and issues obsolete, but they do require leaders to take an active role in acquiring support from citizens for their views and plans, both during elections and while in office (Campus, 2010; Langer, 2007, 2010; McAllister, 2007). To acquire support from citizens, leaders’ credibility is a pivotal asset. As Kouzes and Posner stated: ‘If people don’t believe in the messenger, they won’t believe the message. If people don’t believe in you, they won’t believe in what you say’ (2003: XV). Since the 1950s research has found that being credible relates to convincing citizens that a leader is competent, trustworthy, and caring (Berlo, Lemert, & Mertz, 1969; Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953; McCroskey & Teven, 1999). Aside from general definitions, what it means to be competent, trustworthy, and caring in specific settings and situations, as well as what citizens seem to expect in this respect, is open to debate. This issue is further complicated by the fact that political leaders come in all shapes and sizes. Individual office-holders differ, but also democracies – whether presidential or parliamentary systems – include various leadership positions that each have a distinct role and function in governing (Bennister, ‘t Hart, & Worthy, 2014; Hajer, 2009). In parliamentary systems, for example, cabinet ministers are responsible for formulating, implementing, and defending policy on the domain of their portfolio, in conjunction with other cabinet ministers (Andeweg & Irwin, 2005; Andeweg, 2000). Parliamentary party leaders, especially 2 those of opposition parties, need to lead their parliamentary group, and are also at the forefront of scrutinizing cabinet and its decisions (Andeweg & Irwin, 2005; Uhr, 2008). While most studies into (political) leadership are leader-centered, institutional approaches show that structures – like the office a leader is holding – might be just as important as the agent – in this case the political leader (Dowding, 2008; Hajer, 2009; Andrew King, 1987). From this ‘contingency approach’ (Grint, 2000) that combines the individual and the context it follows that each of the offices within democracy comes with a specific set of formal and informal rules (Hargrove & Owens, 2002; Hargrove, 2002). To perform effectively in these various leadership positions might therefore require different qualities. In turn, citizens interpret and give meaning to leaders’ performance and credibility (Hajer, 2009; Peck & Dickinson, 2009). In this respect, the meaning and expectations of citizens with regard to different leadership offices matters for leaders’ credibility. What makes cabinet ministers credible in the eyes of citizens might very well differ from what is expected from parliamentary party leaders. In this research project it is therefore studied what citizens and other actors expect of cabinet ministers and parliamentary party leaders in order to be attributed credibility. Hence, this paper explores what meaning is attached to the three credibility dimensions - competence, trustworthiness, and caring - and how these compare for two different leadership positions. To answer this question, four Dutch leadership cases – two cabinet ministers (Social Democrat Frans Timmermans and Liberal prime minister Mark Rutte) and two parliamentary party leaders (Socialist Emile Roemer and Social Democrat Diederik Samsom) – are analyzed, who in a survey were found to contrast most in their credibility rating (see below in the methods section). These leaders were studied in the period between August 2013 and June 2014 by means of an extensive qualitative analysis of Tweets and newspaper articles. This provides a way to learn about the public perception of political leaders and how their performance is discussed among citizens, journalists, and other politicians in a real-life media debate. The contribution of this paper to the debate on political leadership and the demands of citizens is threefold. First, different offices are distinguished to better understand what constitutes credible political leadership in different institutional contexts. Therefore, empirically also different leadership positions are compared, including parliamentary party leaders and cabinet ministers that have gained less attention than presidents and prime ministers (Helms, 2012; Uhr, 2008). The second contribution of this study lies in unfolding what it means for political leaders to be considered credible. From previous research it is known that credible leaders are competent, trustworthy, and caring (McCroskey & Teven, 1999; O’Keefe, 1990). While general definitions of these credibility dimensions are available, this study adds what expectations citizens hold in this respect of leaders in different offices. What qualities make citizens conclude that leaders are competent, for example, and how does that differ for cabinet ministers and parliamentary party leaders? In relation to the second contribution, the third contribution is the inclusion of Twitter and newspaper data in the analysis. These type of data are needed in order to better understand how citizens, journalists, and other politicians, experience their leaders. The qualities of successful leaders tend to be assessed based on psychological accounts‘ (e.g. Greenstein, 2000), but in this article it is inductively studied how citizens, journalists and other politicians evaluate leaders’ credibility (and thus what expectations they hold of effective leaders in different offices). Combined, Tweets and newspaper articles provide a highly detailed account of how leaders are perceived in a real- life context. 3 In the remaining part of this paper, first the concept credibility is further explored. Next, the research design and methods underlying this study are explained, where after the empirical analysis is presented. The paper concludes with discussing the implications of the findings and their contribution to the literature on political leadership and credibility. It was found that both types of leaders need to meet a range of qualities. While some of these qualities are the same for both parliamentary party leaders and cabinet ministers, their empirical manifestation can differ, as well as their priority. This suggests that there is not a one-size fits all recipe for political leaders to gain (or lose) credibility. Credibility and expectations of cabinet ministers and parliamentary party leaders Credibility has been a topic of interest in a number of academic disciplines, including law (Ellison, 2005), organizational studies (Ohanian, 1990), and science and technology studies (Gieryn, 1999). The domain of communication studies and related fields like (political) marketing have, however, paid most attention to this concept under the heading of ‘source credibility’. Here ‘source’ does not refer to the origins of credibility, but to the source of communication. As such, it is about the credibility of a speaker, for example